A review by warragh
Dark Souls Vol. 1: The Breath of Andolus by George Mann
3.0
Dark Souls is a franchise which has some very distinct themes outside of its gameplay elements. It uses a lot of strange dialogues, the story is muddled and ambiguous, the worlds are decaying, the characters slowly going mad. Its presentation is rather unique and so any property bearing this name will have a very hard time reproducing the atmosphere of a Souls game.
Starting with the good, the art is amazing. The designs are very well made and most of the time manage to evoke the Souls style very well. The enemies look impressive and menacing although maybe not very original. I'm not an artist so I can't talk about how natural the postures are or how realistic the anatomy or other technical details, all I can say is that my eyes were happy with the pretty pictures.
Unfortunately this is where the good things stop and everything goes into mediocrity. The dialogue feels very forced and unnatural. It feels like it was written by someone who watched a few videos of Dark Souls characters talking and just added some old english words here and there. The structure of the comics is also very linear and disappointing. The main character talks a bit, walks a bit, fights a Boss then the comic ends. It's not bad per se, but just bland.
Finally, the Dark Souls connections. How much of Dark Souls is in this? Well, not much. There are some characters seemingly from the games but without any explanation of what they're doing here. The kingdom in which the action takes place doesn't seem to be part of any place referenced in the games. Chronologically it appears to take place after Dark Souls 1 but it's impossible to say. The author has tried to insert some of the themes of Dark Souls in here, but like the dialogue it feels forced and out of place. It's like someone read a short summary about what Dark Souls is about, inserted some reference to flames and a curse and called it a day. Again, not exactly bad, but bland.
I didn't pick this up with any kind of expectation and so I was neither impressed nor disappointed. It is a difficult franchise to transpose into a comic and the result was to be expected. It tries to do some fan service but it just falls on its face. My advice, ignore the title and just read it like a random fantasy comic. And don't forget to look at the pretty pictures.
Starting with the good, the art is amazing. The designs are very well made and most of the time manage to evoke the Souls style very well. The enemies look impressive and menacing although maybe not very original. I'm not an artist so I can't talk about how natural the postures are or how realistic the anatomy or other technical details, all I can say is that my eyes were happy with the pretty pictures.
Unfortunately this is where the good things stop and everything goes into mediocrity. The dialogue feels very forced and unnatural. It feels like it was written by someone who watched a few videos of Dark Souls characters talking and just added some old english words here and there. The structure of the comics is also very linear and disappointing. The main character talks a bit, walks a bit, fights a Boss then the comic ends. It's not bad per se, but just bland.
Finally, the Dark Souls connections. How much of Dark Souls is in this? Well, not much. There are some characters seemingly from the games but without any explanation of what they're doing here. The kingdom in which the action takes place doesn't seem to be part of any place referenced in the games. Chronologically it appears to take place after Dark Souls 1 but it's impossible to say. The author has tried to insert some of the themes of Dark Souls in here, but like the dialogue it feels forced and out of place. It's like someone read a short summary about what Dark Souls is about, inserted some reference to flames and a curse and called it a day. Again, not exactly bad, but bland.
I didn't pick this up with any kind of expectation and so I was neither impressed nor disappointed. It is a difficult franchise to transpose into a comic and the result was to be expected. It tries to do some fan service but it just falls on its face. My advice, ignore the title and just read it like a random fantasy comic. And don't forget to look at the pretty pictures.